Charges Being Considered in Hazing Case

Westlake High School wrestlers engaged in a pattern of hazing and intimidation that included grabbing students, pinning them down and probing their buttocks with a broomstick dubbed “Pedro,” sheriff’s officials said Monday.

Committed by a handful of wrestlers but witnessed by many, the incidents took place at the school between Sept. 8 and Dec. 8, but did not result in any physical injuries, according to Sgt. Rod Mendoza of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

“The motive was hazing,” Mendoza said late Monday. “The motive was the strong against the weak. Teasing. Harassing. Kids can be cruel sometimes.”

Investigators have not decided whether to file charges, but at most would consider misdemeanor charges of assault and battery, he added.

At least one girl, one wrestler and one boy were subjected to the hazing, but there may have been as many as six incidents, Mendoza said. While the girl was pinned to a wrestling mat in a gym mezzanine area, a wrestler intervened before she could be prodded with the handle of a dry mop, he said.

The victims were fully clothed at the time.

The incidents are not believed to be “sexual in nature at this time,” Mendoza said. “In order for them to be sexual in nature, the . . . suspect has to get sexual arousal out of it. That cannot be proven.”

One boy said eight to 10 boys, not all of them wrestlers, pinned him down on the mat one afternoon after team practice and poked the mop handle at his buttocks.

“I thought it was an initiation, but it went farther than that. . . . I was embarrassed,” he said. “I felt violated.”

The boy said he did not consider the act criminal, but rather a joke that had gotten out of hand.

Sheriff’s investigators have spent five consecutive days at the suburban campus, questioning wrestlers and administrators about the incidents, which prompted school officials to cancel the wrestling season abruptly last week.

Investigators believe that all 27 wrestlers were at least aware of, if not participants in, the incidents, Mendoza said.

School administrators are still considering in-house punishment--such as suspensions or expulsions--against any wrongdoers, but first will await the results of the Sheriff’s Department investigation, Athletic Director Joseph Pawlick said Monday.

The allegations have scandalized Westlake High students and parents, who are more accustomed to on-campus interviews with college recruiters than police.

By late Monday no charges had been filed, but sheriff’s officials were seeking to speak with anyone who knows anything about the alleged hazing.

“If anything, the charges would be misdemeanor assault and battery,” Mendoza said. “Only a handful supposedly took part in this.”

The penalty for misdemeanor assault and battery ranges from a fine or community service to a year in jail--which Mendoza said would be extreme.

Wrestlers and administrators have cooperated with the investigation, which is somewhat hampered by the school’s winter break, Mendoza added.

“There’s no code of silence,” he said. “People are telling what they know.”

The police accounts jibe with those of one wrestler who spoke out Monday.

“No one was ever hurt,” said the youth, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I think it was a joke that went way too far. . . . Maybe someone should have stopped it, but no one ever knew it was so bad.”

The wrestler said he did not participate but witnessed part of one hazing episode. He also heard teammates’ accounts of two other instances targeting students who were not part of the wrestling team.

He said that the stick had become an unofficial team mascot and that the conduct was harmless, albeit tasteless, horseplay.

Others saw it differently, with school administrators describing the hazing as “gross team misconduct” and some parents characterizing it as a simulated sex act.

The investigation at Westlake High School could be a Ventura County first, Mendoza said.

“It’s the first time we’ve investigated a whole team . . . as possibly being involved in a crime as a whole,” Mendoza said. “We’ve never investigated a football team as a whole. Or a baseball team. Or a basketball team.”